Simplify your life, one day at a time

I, Sister C, received another box in the mail the other day with products to try from BzzAgent! I am starting to really like this company! I really love trying new products.

This time around, I received CoverGirl Natureluxe Foundation and Lipstick. I hate trying to pick out a foundation color based on an online picture, but I think I did pretty well. I’d go out in public with this foundation lol It’s a pretty good match. I’ve used Artistry products for the last 12 years, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Although I’m not sure I’d ever switch, I really don’t have much to complain about this product. I’ve been wearing a powder foundation for several years now, and this CoverGirl was liquid. It went on easily, covered up my dark circles under my eyes pretty well, and felt light. I’ve tried other foundations that were in my mom’s or sister’s makeup kits when I go home and forget my foundation (mommy brain) and I never like them. They feel “cakey” or something. Natureluxe did not leave that heavy, makeup-y feeling on my skin. I was quite surprised.

I have not tried the lipstick yet, as it’s in the drawer out of the kids’ reach and I have to dig it out :o)

Go HERE to find out what BzzAgent is all about, and how to become one yourself!

Sister C also made a run to the Downtown Walgreen’s today. They had their Mixed Nuts on sale for 99c each. They ring up as $2.99, so make sure they fix that. They are on an end cap in the far left corner of the store. I don’t care for some of the nuts in them, but for 99c, I’ll eat the ones I do like lol

Sister C made a run to the Downtown Hy-Vee. We are going to start potty training Little V. So I bought some bribes. The Crunch bars were on sale for 50c each, and I used 5 – $1/2 Coupons that I had snagged from a gas station. I actually have like 15 more coupons since I saw them every time I went into a gas station, each time I snagged a few more. Hubby R loves Trident Vitality, and the Hy-Vee store always seems to have his gum on clearance, so I ran down there. They had them for just 25c each. I paid $5 for all of them, and normally I’d get only 3 of them for that price. And they still had about 200 more. I also grabbed 2 Reese’s Eggs for 37c each.

If you like jelly beans, they had lots of bags of them for 13 each. WOW I might go back and get a few of those bags for additional potty bribes!

Current Balance – $6031.08 I messed up. I “prepaid” the credit card knowing something was going to be charged on it, so that’s why it is more. Oops. And the interest was tacked on. Holy crap. I think I might try to find an interest free for a year card to put it on. That’s ridiculous.

*If you follow Dave Ramsey, he says no matter what to pay down your next lowest balance. This is not our next lowest balance, but it’s our highest interest rate one. Now that we’ve paid off so many loans in the last 2 years, we believe this is a better route to go, where as our other loans have such a small interest rate on them, this is by far the worst “loan” we have. So…Ready…Set…GO!

We have a lot of extra money left over from my tips and our paychecks, but since we are heading out to Indiana, we are keeping that in the account right now until we get our next paychecks just to make sure we have everything covered – we don’t receive vacation pay at all. But I can’t wait to start knocking down the balance!

Credit Card Current Balance – $5,617.67 – was 5668.02 on April 12th

*If you follow Dave Ramsey, he says no matter what to pay down your next lowest balance. This is not our next lowest balance, but it’s our highest interest rate one. Now that we’ve paid off so many loans in the last 2 years, we believe this is a better route to go, where as our other loans have such a small interest rate on them, this is by far the worst “loan” we have. So…Ready…Set…GO!

Now, remember several keys aren’t working on my keyboard, so make sure to LIKE us on Facebook to keep up with all the deals we find. You’ll see a few posts here and there on the blog if I can copy and paste numbers into my posts, or borrow Hubby R’s computer lol

Are you a Upromise member yet? If not, it’s an easy way to get some extra cash to put towards your children’s college education. (There is also a way to just get it as cash.) If there is anything on Walmart.com that you have wanted to buy, now is the day to do it! You’ll get 10% of what you spend into your Upromise account when you use the Walmart link on the Upromise website, and use the debit/credit card that is linked to your Upromise account.

For Mankato, both Hy-Vee and CVS are linked to this program. For Hy-Vee, you have the cashier scan your Upromise card. For CVS, you just scan your CVS card. So, go link up your CVS card to Upromise, and request a Upromise card to be used at Hy-Vee now! If you don’t have kids, find a friend that does and help them build a fund for their children’s education.

On the first of the month, you are able to download new coupons to your Upromise card (coupons are on a monthly basis). Nice thing about this, you can match manufacturer coupons, store coupons AND Upromise coupons all on the same product for triple savings! I personally don’t have a lot saved up yet, but my kids are just getting into school, so I have time yet.

Cub has released a revised coupon policy for its stores, and I thought it would be nice to list a bunch of different store policies. Make sure to print them off and have onhand when you are shopping in case you get a cashier that doesn’t know their own store’s policy. I’ve even had to do this with managers!

Cub – Pocket Your Dollars has a comment about each part Why I like Cub…Cub accepts expired coupons, from inserts, online or catalinas (including Register Rewards from Walgreens)!

CVS CVS doesn’t have a coupon policy, you just email the company your questions about a certain senario. Hard to email them all your questions when you don’t know what might happen at the register. :o( But I still love CVS because of their ECBs. And that they keep track of it for you on your receipt, so you can buy some on Monday, and come back on Friday when the shelves have been restocked to buy the rest needed to get whatever ECB deal they have going on! (Walgreen’s requires that you purchase them all in a single transaction).

Hy-Vee Why I like Hy-Vee…They ad match and coupon match any store in town!

Target Why I like Target…I think they do ad match, even though it’s not stated. Correct me if I’m wrong.Walgreens Why I like Walgreens – Register Rewards. But lately they haven’t been worth my time. Although I do get my diapers there for dirt cheap with sales!

Wal-Mart Why I will make an acception to shop at Wal-Mart ;o)…They will not reduce a coupon if it is above the price of the product. So if you have a coupon for $3 off and the item is only $2.50 at the store, you’ll get the other 50c off your total bill, just make sure to have a “filler” item.

These are the most popular stores for Mankato. Are there any other stores that you’d like a link to? I’ll update this list!

Paid off another stupidity loan! ($221/month to snowball into the next loan!)

Set aside money to pay for a second vehicle IN FULL.

Bought Hubby R some much needed contacts for the year.

Bought $35 worth of extra groceries :o)

Will go out to eat WITHOUT KIDS on Sunday!

The rest we need to sit down and figure out where it needs to go. Part of it will go to pay for entry fees for Hubby R’s tournaments this year. We decided that we each get $X to go into our “Fun Money” accounts. We were very short in this category since I went on maternity leave, so in a way it’s paying back the “IOU”s.

Summary –

Emergency Fund – StockedIndiana Fund – StockedColorado Fund ($500 Wanted)- Roughly $30 Right Now, I still have to get to the bank to see my balance.

Next on the list to pay down –

Credit Card – $5668.02 *If you follow Dave Ramsey, he says no matter what to pay down your next lowest balance. This is not our next lowest balance, but it’s our highest interest rate one. Now that we’ve paid off so many loans in the last 2 years, we believe this is a better route to go, where as our other loans have such a small interest rate on them, this is by far the worst “loan” we have. So…Ready…Set…GO!

Sister C switched her availability to work evenings which will hopefully bring in a lot more money to get that debt gone!